Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 239

NOVEMBER, 1931 ]
NOTES ON HOBSON-JOBSON
211
obsolete.' The word is spelt by Hadley in his Grammar (see under Moors) Khuzmutgar' (p.486). In Mundy's Hismetkeoare,' the Kh seems to have been miswritten or misread as an h.
Kuhar.-This word is also used by early Muhammadan historians.
[c. 1358.) "The Sultan (Qutbu'd-dîn Mubarak Khalji] was so infatuated, and so strongly desired the presence of Khusra Khan, that he sent relays of bearers with a litter to bring him with all haste from Deogir in the course of seven or eight days."-Barani, in Elliot and Dowson, 1. of I., III, 220.
Here the word used in the text is kahdr (4), and the same vocable is again found at p. 86, 1. 2, of that author's Tarikh-t-Firdashahi. (Text.) The word also occurs in the Tarikh-i-Firizsháhi of Shams-i-Siraj, which was completed about 1400. (Text, p. 320, 1. 9, and p. 325, last line.)
Kunkur, Conker.-This word occurs in the Ain-s-Akbart, only it has not been recognized, even by the learned Blochmann, on account of a copyist's error. In the chapter on the Prioes of Building Materials, Abal-Fayl writes :
"Chúnah, or quiok lime, 2 d[ams) per man; it is mostly boiled out of kangur, a kind of solid earth resembling stone in hardness." --Ain-i-Aldari, trans. Blochmann, I, 223. The text has tik, but it is clear that the second stroke of the us is due to a slip on the part of the transcriber and the true reading must be sok, lodnkar, i.e., the Hindi kankar. The word is even now spelt in Gujarati with the long a, e.g., kdnkrf. cf. also the place-name Kankra Kharf near Surat. (Mundy, Travels, II, 33, note.)
Larin.--Yule's earliest illustration is of 1525. The following reference is several years older.
[c. 1516.) "In silver there is [in Ormuz) a long coin like a bean, also with Moorish letters on both sides, which is worth three vintens, more or less, which they oall tangas, and this silver is very fine."-The Book of Duarte Barbosa, trans. Dames, I, 100.
Love bird.-The following description of this pretty little lorikeet' is from the pen of the Emperor Jahangir.
"In these days, thoy brought a bird from the country of Zirbåd which was coloured like a parrot, but had a smaller body. One of its peculiarities is that it lays hold with its feet of the branch or perch on which they may have placed it and then makes a somersault, and remains in this position at night and whispers to itself. When day comes, it seats itself on the top of the branch."-Tuzuk-s-Jahangfri, trans. Beveridge, I, 272.
Lungooty.-Yule's earliest quotation is from 'Abdu'r-razzág (1442), but the scanty piece of cloth which appears to have been the only apparel of the masses of India in the middle ages is the subject of contemptuous allusion in the India of Albiruni.
[c. 1030.] "Thoy [the Hindus) wear turbans for trousers. Those who want little dress are content to dress in a rag of two fingers' breadth, which they bind over their loins with two cords."- Alberuni's India, trans. Sachau, I, 180.
And an English 'voyager,' Thomas Stevens, wrote thus in 1679 :
“They that be not of reputation, or at least the most part, goe naked, saving an apron of a span long and as much in breadth before them, and a lace two fingers broad before them, girded about with a string, and no more ; and thus they thinke them as well as we do with all our trimming."-Hakluyt's Voyages, II, 585.
Madras.-In the three first quotations in Yule, which are dated 1663, 1886, and 1872, the town is called 'Madraspatan.' 'Maderas' appears for the first time in Fryer (1673). But there is an earlier example in the following:
[1654.] "Baker after his arrival summoned Yardley, Edward Winter and Leigh to oonsult about the differences between Greenhill and two Bramonies, the one the Governor and Justice of this towne of Madrass, the other the cheofe for buying goods of all sorts in those parts for the Honourable Company."-English Factories in India (1651-84), p. 246. Sir William Foster says that !! this early use of the shortened form " is worthy of note,